Review: Leia

Tags: basque, Betty, bra, Elomi, fat fashion, fatshion, friends, Leia, lingerie, Old Navy, personal, plus size, Primark, review, strapless, vbo

Hello my lovelies,

Like I mentioned in my post from week ago, I went to Bluewater with Caroline of CurvyWordy, and our main intention was to visit Leia Lingerie. I was very excited to go bra shopping with Caroline, since she is what I call a guru when it comes to bras, the lady knows everything! She was the one who told me that I basically need to get fitted everywhere to know what my size is in each brand etc, so going to Leia store with her was a really great experience :). We were welcomed by the lovely store manager Leigh, who introduced us to Julie who did our fitting.

The only time that I have had a fitting before was at the Curvy Kate bloggers event (post here), and in their bras I’m a 38GG, so we used that as a starting point for me in Elomi bras. First bra we tried was the beautiful Betty, and we tried 3 sizes before we found the fit in 40GG. Julie and me agreed that either that or an H cup is the best fit for me in Betty, since my other boob is quite a bit bigger than the other. They didn’t have Betty in 40H in store, so we tried with some other Elomi model and that was WAY too big. I decided to take the risk without trying Betty in H cup, and actually after using it for a day I know that H is what I will purchase when I get my next Betty (and I will get many Betty’s in the future – love the bra). I also got the Betty brief, which is frilly and GORGEOUS.

After Julie and I got my size sorted in Betty, I mentioned to her what I REALLY needed. A sports bra and a strapless bra. Julie left the fitting room determined to help me find what I need. I really appreciated it that she really looked for items everywhere in the store (and apparently upstairs storage too). Sadly they didn’t have the Elomi Energise sports bras in store, and since I only wanted an underwired one, I only got one Freya bra to try. That one was sadly way too small, so Energise is definitely something that I want to try out in the future! (Might have to do a new visit to Leia soon! Haha.)

Then to my second ‘need’: strapless. I tried a few different brands and bras, with Elomi Smoothing being the best fit, but still nowhere near perfect for my boobs. Julie wasn’t going to give up though. Once again she said that ‘she’ll look upstairs’ and came back with the most gorgeous basque I’ve seen. It was of course the Elomi Occasions basque, and I REALLY wanted it to work for me. Now like you have seen, my underbust width is much less than around my belly, which means that the basque can never work for me as a proper basque with the suspender straps etc, but it works perfectly as a ‘bralet’. TOTALLY ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY. My problems with strapless are gone and I’m so completely happy about that! I fitted as 40G in the basque, but there’s still a bit of room in the cups, so I think that possibly a 40H-HH could also wear it, since I can as a GG :). The cups themselves have a light boning in them, which keeps the boobs in a perfect shape. I’m so in love with this basque… and if Elomi ever decides *hint, hint* to do a strapless bra with the same kind of light cup-boning, I will buy about zillion of those!

See! I can wear a strapless dress! Dress: 18, New Look (similar.. or actually a lot fancier, haha)

I also put together an outfit where I use the basque as a top. Looks pretty great like that, or what do you think?

Elomi Occasions basque in 40G (online store link) | Biker jacket: 20, Primark (similar) | Skirt: XL, Old Navy via Dani, and also shortened (similar) | Belt: XL, Dorothy Perkins (similar) | Heels: Clarks (similar)

What do you think? Successful bra-shopping? I’d say so! I love the cuteness of Betty and the sexiness of the basque, AND obviously the fact that it works so well for me as a strapless bra. LOVE. I want to give a HUGE thank you to Leigh and her fabulous staff, especially Julie of course. My readers, if you have a chance to visit the Leia Lingerie store in Bluewater I absolutely recommend going. The customer service is amazing and the lingerie gorgeous.. and to tempt you even more: Elomi has amazing stuff coming.. like for example.. A LONGLINE BRA…

See that gorgeous longline bra in the catalogue? It’s calling my name!

Yeah, I really think that the girls of the Bluewater store will be seeing me again soon, and obviously I’ll make Caroline go with me again ;)!!